Who is your Advocates Diaboli?

Here in California we are surrounded by Saints.

At least 33 cities are named after Catholic saints including:

• San Diego

• San Marcos (where my second son is a senior in college)

• Los Angeles (which was originally—1781—called “The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the Porciúncula River”—so it was technically named after a saint too (Saint Mary)

• Santa Barbara (a beautiful city I’ve visited many times to train with Ontraport)

• San Francisco, named after St. Francis of Assisi (where my oldest son graduated college)

(It’s crazy that such a bastion of anti-religious legislation and hostility has such a rich religious history, but I digress…a little.)

Can You Defeat Your Opponent?

When someone is recommended for sainthood in the Catholic Church, an Advocatus Diaboli or “Devil’s Advocate” is appointed to argue

This person takes a skeptical view of the character of the candidate and attempts to find evidence that invalidates the miracles that have been attributed to the proposed saint.

Keep in mind that this Devil’s Advocate is a well-educated, deeply-Catholic person known as a canon lawyer who works hard to defend his faith by knowing his enemy, the devil.

How does this apply to you and me in business?

First of all, recognize that your opponent in business is probably not the devil.

More than once I went to work for the competition that my former company wanted me to believe was pulling the wings off of butterflies and burning ants with magnifying glasses, that is when they weren’t making unsafe, ineffective, over-priced trash. 

Secondly, you and I are not God.

We have imperfections in our offerings, weaknesses in our arguments, and areas in which we can improve…if we took the blinders off long enough to look for them and at them.

While it may be hard to find your own flaws, try being a “reverse Devil’s Advocate” and spend time finding the benefits in what your competition offers.

This will not only help you see them the way your prospects see your competition, but it will help you realize where they are stronger than you, which will help you both market better and improve your own offerings because, by definition, wherever they are better than you is where you are weak.

And whatever can be measured can be improved.

So begin analyzing your competition as though they are decent human beings with a solid offering and, once you close the doors, sell their offerings to one another. 

I bet your empathy goes up along with your sales.

Need more advocates of the devil?

You’ll find some here.

Now go sell something.